LAS VEGAS — As he was preparing for his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Utah Mammoth star forward Logan Cooley reminisced about his best memories watching the postseason as a youth.
“The whole hockey world gets around and watches,” he said. “Watching your favorite players win the Cup, it kind of gives you chills just thinking about it.”
As a 14-year-old, Cooley celebrated when Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals finally hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2018. Ovechkin skated laps around T-Mobile Arena that night in Las Vegas with the trophy proudly lifted above his head.
Seven years later, Cooley made his postseason debut in the same building.
“I’m excited to be in this position, chasing the Cup,” he said.
The challenge: Taking on the battle-tested Vegas Golden Knights and their roster overflowing with talent, brute strength and championship pedigree. Cooley and the Mammoth entered Vegas’ barn, which is one of the loudest in all of the NHL, with an assortment of division, conference and Stanley Cup title banners hanging from the rafters, and a giant, smoke-breathing dragon statue overlooking the rink.
Amid all of that chaos, Cooley has looked right at home.
The 21-year-old has been Utah’s best player through the first two games of the first-round series, and scored the game-winning goal on Tuesday night to deliver a 3-2 Mammoth victory, their first since moving to Utah.
Even in a tight-checking, physical game with elite talent all over the ice, Cooley’s speed and skill stood out like the 315,000-watt beam of light emanating from the top of the Luxor Hotel and Casino.
Late in the third period, with the sides deadlocked 2-2, Utah’s youngest, least-experienced line of Cooley, Dylan Guenther and Kailer Yamamoto made the play of the night.
Yamamoto received a breakout pass near his own blue line with Vegas star Jack Eichel draped on his back, and chipped the puck to Guenther, who was ripping through the neutral zone with speed.
“I wanted to get it on my forehand, but obviously he was going a little bit too fast, so I tried to touch it behind him,” Yamamoto recalled. “He caught it with speed and burned that D.”
Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore was caught flat-footed by the quick-developing play, and couldn’t do much as Guenther raced by him toward the net. Guenther fired a shot, and Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart stopped it with his pad. He clanged the rebound off the short side post.
Cooley swooped in between Eichel and veteran defender Brayden McNabb to jam the puck across the goal line and put Utah ahead for good.
Logan Cooley scored the game-winning goal on Tuesday night. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
“It’s what you dream of since you were a little kid,” Cooley said after. “You just want to leave everything out there. The games are so intense, physical and fast, and I think that fits my game.”
Cooley has scored in each of the first two games of the series and is leading the Mammoth in every way. It may come as a surprise how quickly the young star has adapted to playoff hockey, but not to those who know him best.
“I don’t know if it’s impressive when you see him every day,” Utah coach André Tourigny said. “We know how competitive and how good he is. For us, it’s just staying in the moment. Cooley has been really good for us since he’s been with us, for three years now. His head is in the right place. He’s in the moment.”
The physical challenge of playoff hockey is obvious. Scorers endure a barrage of hits and stick checks to fight for every inch of ice. The mental side can be just as challenging, as Tourigny poetically described Tuesday night.
“You need to have the right balance,” he explained. “You need to have poise, you need to be patient, you need to be aggressive, and you need to be intense … You have to be 10 out of 10 in your drive, but at the same time, you need to be calm. You need to be urgent, but you need to be patient. All of that. It’s why those guys are pros, and they’re unbelievable.”
Cooley has handled it all brilliantly.
In only his third NHL season, he has already experienced quite the journey. Cooley was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2022 draft by the Arizona Coyotes. He played his rookie season at the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena in Glendale, Arizona, before the team relocated to Salt Lake City.
“In the moment, it’s tough to reflect and look back, but it’s crazy everything that has happened,” Cooley said after morning skate on Sunday. “We moved to Utah, and the next thing you know, we’re getting ready to play in the playoffs. It has kind of been a whirlwind.”
The moment hasn’t been too big for Cooley, or the sharp-shooting Guenther, who’s also making his postseason debut.
“The atmosphere is great, but I think it’s still the same game,” Guenther said. “We’ve earned the right to be here. We had a great regular season and prepared for it. It’s exciting to be in that moment, and just a ton of fun.”
Guenther, 22, has also been great to start the series. The 2021 first-round draft pick has improved in each of his four seasons in the NHL, following up last year’s 27-goal breakout campaign with a 40-goal explosion this season to lead the Mammoth. He’s done it with a wicked release that made an appearance Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Early in the second period, Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin chipped the puck high off the glass in an attempt to clear his zone. Yamamoto caught it with his glove and quickly backhanded a pass over to Guenther at the top of the left circle.
Guenther unleashed a one-timer that zipped by Hart’s blocker to give Utah a 2-1 lead.
“I’m not sure how he scored from so far out,” Yamamoto said. “Unbelievable shot.”
Yamamoto, 27, only had 34 games of playoff experience himself entering this series, but on a line with Cooley and Guenther, he’s the veteran.
“He’s just such a smart player,” Cooley said of Yamamoto. “He reads off me and Guenther really well. It seems like he’s always in the right position. And he’s a positive guy. He keeps us loose.”
Utah’s top line of Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse struggled in Games 1 and 2. Keller and Schmaltz led the team in scoring in the regular season, but the trio has yet to record a point in the playoffs and have been on the ice for three of Vegas’ four even-strength goals.
That has made the play of Cooley, Guenther and Yamamoto that much more crucial.
“Oh my god, those two are unbelievable,” Yamamoto said of his linemates. “They’re very easy to play with. They just use their speed. They’re so quick, and heavy on pucks. They may not be the biggest guys, but they’re very heavy on their sticks and win a lot of battles.
“They’re very easy to talk to off the ice, on the bench,” he continued. “We’re always trying to make better plays and read off each other. I’m a fast player, and they’re both fast players, so I think we just read off each other really well right now.”
Tourigny put the line together late in the regular season, and they outscored their opponents 12-7 over 122 minutes of five-on-five ice time. That’s 5.86 goals per 60 minutes, the highest rate for any Mammoth line this season.
In their small sample size in the playoffs, against one of the most stout defensive teams in hockey, they’ve looked just as impressive. Yamamoto believes it will only get better from here.
“I think they’re only going to grow,” he said of Cooley and Yamamoto. “They’re very good hockey players. Very smart and intelligent, so they’ll only grow from here.”
The Mammoth return to Salt Lake City having stolen home-ice advantage. They will be greeted by what promises to be a raucous Delta Center, hosting its first-ever playoff game on Friday. There’s still a lot of work to be done in this series, as Tourigny and his players emphasized after the emotional win on Tuesday, but if Utah is going to pull off the upset, it will be with Cooley and Guenther leading the way.
“I think they’re just enjoying the moment,” said defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, who scored Utah’s first goal on Tuesday. “That’s what it’s all about at a young age like that. Just go out there, play your game, have fun, be present, feel the crowd, and feel the energy. Those guys are exceptional players. When they get time and space like that, we know that they’re going to come up clutch and make big plays for our group.”